Ongoing Stomach Problems For Pomeranian

I have a Pomeranian that is 12 years old. For her entire life, she has had problems with her stomach. We finally figured out that if we feed her foods like meat (steak, chicken, etc) her stomach gets worse. It's almost like she cannot properly digest food. She will vomit 2-3 times a day. When I give her chicken for example, you will hear stomach noises while she is trying to digest the food. If I feed her the normal food we give her (blended), we don't hear the stomach noises. We had a vet do the procedure where they put her under and ran a camera through her stomach to try and find the issue and the results came back that everything looks normal. We have had her looked at multiple times and no one can figure out the issue. What we do now is blend chicken and rice in a blender and give her the food already blended and this seems to minimize the issues. She can still vomit depending on the day. Sometimes she will throw up 1-2 times a day and some days she doesn't. If we give her unblended food, she will usually throw up more. Giving her blended soft food (IE. Chicken and rice, potatoes with carrots, etc) seems to keep things more under control. From the 12 years we have been dealing with this, I think she has trouble with her stomach being able to properly digest food. Everything else is normal. She has normal energy, uses the bathroom normally, etc. It's just that she sometimes throws up 1-2 times a day on days she is having issues. I am posting because I am looking for any ideas anyone has to help with this issue. Again, we have been to multiple vets and they can't find any problems with blood, camera, etc. We haven't had a single vet come back and tell us they found anything abnormal. I have provided the vets videos of her throwing up. Has anyone seen this in dogs where they have trouble digesting food like this? If so, is there anything I can do to minimize it or stop it? Blending the food seems to help the most. We have tried all kinds of different dog food, normal food, etc. At this point, we make her freshly blended chicken and rice, chicken and potatoes, etc because using non-dog food seems to be better for her. For example, yesterday for Christmas, I gave her 1 treat and a small piece of ham. Now her stomach is making noises like it's trying to digest the food. Even a small treat or piece of meat can cause issues. Can anyone make any recommendations or has any ideas as to how I can help her? I hate seeing her throwing up all the time. Thank you!

Sorry to hear you are having this trouble with your Pomeranian and digestion.I'm not a vet just another person with an older dog that had some digestion issues in the past.  I'm sure one of the vets on this forum will offer some insight. Sounds like you are doing the right things after vets not being able to find anything definitive for the issue. We do the same thing with feeding are two small dogs fresh chicken & veggies. Although we do also add some meat. All cut up really small. What we ended up doing is adding a Pre & Probiotic to their food. This has helped a lot. Also adding some pumpkin puree to food once in awhile can help. Best of luck and Happy New Year!

Very interesting. This helps confirm my idea of ordering a probiotic and trying that. I appreciate the feedback! I was doing some research after I posted this and this is exactly what I found as a suggestion! I ordered a probiotic called NaturVet – Digestive Enzymes - Plus Probiotics & Prebiotics. I am going to try this and see if it helps. I appreciate the feedback. I don't know if this will help but I am going to try it out anyway since it's not too expensive to see if it helps. Thank you!

Hello and thankyou for this interesting history.  I wonder whether the bloods that your vet has done completely rule out a condition known as pancreatitis, which relates to inflammation of the pancreas and can be associated with such chronic ( low level, long term) vomiting?   The methods for diagnosing pancreatitis have changed a lot over the years.  I don't know what bloods your vet has taken, but in terms of second opinions (we cannot give them on this site), your vets' laboratory may be able to advise them as to whether pancreatitis could still be a possibility in light of the test result and clinical findings that your vet already has.  It could be that a sequence of blood tests, or more complex tests, are needed.  Other causes of intermittent vomiting include lumps in unusual places and indeed any cause of nausea; underlying medical conditions and regurgitation, which isn't strictly vomiting ( your vet should tell the difference from your description).   Intermittent vomiting that is increasing in frequency can also reflect underlying problems with eg the kidneys or liver.   Digestives enzymes rarely, in my opinion, cure vomiting and a chat with your vet about their plan to find out more ( and what has already been ruled out ) could be helpful.  Please do let us know how you get on.

Thank you for the replies. I will have the vet take her blood and check for any issues with her pancreas. She does have a lump on her back leg and I did take her to the vet specifically to get this checked and they told me not to worry about it unless it changed or increased in size. I have attached pictures of the lump since you did mention this can also cause this issue. I will bring her back into the vet and ask them to look at the lump again and take blood to rule out an issue with her pancreas as well. I may try a new vet since the current vet has looked at this issue multiple times and has never found any issues.  

So I took her into an internal medicine vet and they did blood any everything else. They ended up giving her oral steroids as they think the vomiting is related to a weak esophagus or inflammation. The steroids have pretty much stopped everything. She is no longer throwing up and back to normal. They wanted me to try this to see if it helps and it seems to have worked perfectly. I need to go back and discuss a long term plan because I can't keep giving her steroids forever. But at least I know the problem now! Thank you!